Intelligence and legitimacy. Those are the two nouns that best describe Lorenzo Lanciers, co-founder of The Maghreb and Orient Courier (MOC). He instilled his critical spirit and his unconditional love for truth in our publication. Lorenzo has just left us; he fought the unforgiving enemy and lost the battle against cancer.

Lorenzo was a friend. He was a man of great erudition, whose humanist education had been shaped by the literature of the glorious centuries – when authors still had something to teach-, by independent film, music, songs with meaning and philosophy amongst other things…

He was an admirable intellectual who had a precise sense of analysis and who did not leave any detail up to chance when he encountered a problem in political science. He was clairvoyant, fine and cultivated, at the opposite of the crude understanding nowadays used by the mainstream press. Lorenzo was also a person with a spirit of freedom rarely encountered, a sense of truth that had progressively brought him to join the very restricted club of those that poignantly speak their mind.

One could openly speak and discuss any topic with him, without being afraid of taboos that would have handicapped the exchange. Nor was it ever necessary to hide one’s convictions if they did not correspond to his.

Lorenzo was also a knowledgeable website administrator; and it was he who oversaw the entire conceptualisation of the website of the MOC.

He was very proud of it. Proud of quality work serving the cause of intelligence and, of course, of truth.

The last time that I saw him conscious and that we spoke, he did not spare any effort to ask me questions about the evolution of the project and he was sorry not to be able to contribute as much as he did initially due to his weakening physical condition.

Although he was already very ill, he insisted on continuing to contribute to the publication, which he had managed since the beginning of this great intellectual adventure. Only a few weeks before he left us he still sent me corrections of my articles, that his watchful eyes had spotted.

It was more than pride for him, the MOC was something that for him had a particular meaning; something that he had greatly contributed to. And Lorenzo did not abandon the team when his illness had begun to weaken him to the point that he decided to reduce his activity in the publication: he guaranteed the transition with his successor, Sébastien de Beauffort. The relay has worked perfectly and the adventure begun by him now continues through others, who will keep his memory alive.

Lorenzo was also a man of his word, of keeping his engagements. The ideal colleague and friend that one sadly does not encounter often enough, the one that pushes you to reconcile with life and to strive to act philanthropically.

Lorenzo Lanciers’s mind was one of serenity and balance, calm, loving lucidity, who observed an immutable socio-political world; and he was a fellow of freedom – that kind that leaves little place for compromises and cowardice, never mind if it meant paying a high price. Never letting go of truth; never betraying this path towards freedom.

In this sense his last words resonate to the most perceptive minds: « I will struggle, eternally, but without hope in my soul. »

The Maghreb and Orient Courier

Categories

Subscribe to our newsletter

The CMO-MOC is an online bimonthly review about the Arab World, created by a large international team of volunteer contributors, correspondents present in all countries from Morocco to Afghanistan and academics, with the ideal of producing high quality level and independent information and analysis.
Access to CMO-MOC's website is free. Please, help us to maintain the platform and develop our media, by subscribing to our newsletter and/or making a donation to allow the team to perform her job.
Thanks to our Readers for their involvement.